revanche
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of revanche
1855–60; < French: revenge
Explanation
In politics, revanche is when one country retaliates against another by reclaiming territory that's been lost. A focus on revanche can often lead to military conflict. The French word revanche means "revenge." The word was first used in a political context in the 1870s after the Franco-Prussian War. French nationalists were determined to get back at the German confederation by reclaiming territory they'd lost, and their single-minded focus on this retaliation came to be known as revanche. The term is still around, used to describe modern political events like the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin claimed was lost Russian territory.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a public statement, Serebrennikov described how, even in the country’s gathering conservative revanche, it had seemed that some “free air” remained, if only “in fashionable cafes, at home, with friends”.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 17, 2020
They actually predicted as early as 1999 that there was a possibility of totalitarian revanche.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2017
This time, however, the “White House defenders” were the forces for revanche, and the term’s association with freedom faded.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 19, 2016
“By revanche , I mean the resurrection of the great state in which we lived, which we became used to,” Pavlovsky explained.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 18, 2015
Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, en revanche, could surprise and devour the unwary insect.
From Charles Darwin by Grant Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
